With the two schools officially joining the SEC on July 1st, let’s look back on how West Virginia fared against the two Big 12 founders in football.
While the three teams shared a conference, West Virginia went 5-6 against the Longhorns and 1-10 against the Sooners. While neither WVU or Texas held more than a two-game winning streak over the other, Oklahoma won its first nine games against the Mountaineers.
Texas
West Virginia traveled to Austin in 2012 to kick off the team’s first game within the same conference. This also marked the first time the two schools faced each other in football since 1956, a game which West Virginia won 7-6. Their first Big 12 game was an offensive shootout with the 8th ranked Mountaineers winning on the road against 11 Texas, 48-45. Quarterback Geno Smith threw four touchdowns in a game that saw over 860 total yards of offense between the teams.
Texas took the next two games in the following two years. They won 47-40 in 2013 and 33-16 in 2014, with running back Johnathan Gray rushing for three touchdowns in the latter match. However, West Virginia would also win back-to-back games against the Longhorns, winning 38-20 in 2015 and 24-20 in 2016. Both wins were defined by dominant rushing attacks, with running back Wendell Smallwood rushing for 165 yards in 2015 and running back Kennedy McCoy tallying two touchdowns in 2016.
Quarterback Sam Ehlinger lead Texas to a 28-14 victory in 2017, throwing for two touchdowns and 136 yards in a game where quarterback Will Grier was lost to injury.
2018 may have been the most memorable game between the two schools. With both teams ranked heading into the game, 13 West Virginia defeated 17 Texas by a final score of 42-41. This game featured a duel between Grier and Ehlinger, with the two combining for six touchdowns and 700 passing yards. However, this game is remembered for exactly two plays:
With the late game heroics of Grier and wide receiver Gary Jennings, the Mountaineers escaped Austin with a 1-point victory.
2019 and 2020 saw another two-game winning streak in favor of the Longhorns. Quarterback Austin Kendall struggled mightily in 2019’s 42-31 loss, throwing four interceptions. Texas’s defense held strong in 2020, only allowing one touchdown in their 17-13 win.
West Virginia most recently defeated Texas in 2021 while dashing their bowl game hopes under then first-year head coach Steve Sarkeisian. Quarterback Jarret Doege threw three touchdowns leading the Mountaineers to a 31-23 win, their final one over Texas as of today.
2022 saw the final game between West Virginia and Texas within the same conference. The Longhorns handily defeated the Mountaineers by 38-20. Future NFL talents headlined Texas’s win, with wide receiver Xavier Worthy and running back Bijan Robinson each tallying over 100 yards and combining for three touchdowns in the win.
While Texas had the edge in head-to-head games, neither team has defeated the other by more than 18 points, with both teams defeating the other 38-20 at one point. The programs shared many competitive games throughout their shared time in the Big 12, with seven of their 11 games having a winning margin of less than ten points.
Oklahoma
Prior to joining the Big 12 conference, the most recent game between the Mountaineers and Sooners took place at the 2008 Fiesta Bowl with West Virginia winning 48-28. Yet, WVU wasn’t able to beat Oklahoma again until 2022. What took the Mountaineers so long to get an in-conference win against OU?
West Virginia almost took down Oklahoma in their first in-conference game against each other, falling 50-49 in 2012. Quarterback Landry Jones threw six touchdowns on the day, including the game-winning touchdown to wide receiver Kenny Stills with 24 seconds left on the clock.
In 2013 and 2014, the Mountaineers couldn’t stop running backs Brennan Clay and Samaje Perine from leading their teams to two more wins. 2013 saw a low scoring battle, with Oklahoma winning 16-7, while 2014 saw more offensive production in a 45-33 Sooners win.
From 2015 to 2017, West Virginia couldn’t get within 20 points of Oklahoma during their games against each other. The Sooners were in the midst of a dominant stretch for their program, being ranked as high as 2nd on the AP poll and making the College Football Playoff twice during these three seasons. Quarterback Baker Mayfield haunted West Virginia, throwing eight touchdowns against them in three years en route to three dominant victories (44-24, 56-28, and 59-31).
2018 looked like a great opportunity for WVU’s first win against Oklahoma since they joined the Big 12. At the end of the third quarter, The Mountaineers held a slim lead over the Sooners, 49-45, in an offensive shootout. Oklahoma retook the lead early in the fourth quarter, giving West Virginia the ball down 52-49. However, the Sooners’ defensive line got to Will Grier, forcing a fumble which led to a scoop and score for linebacker Curtis Bolton with just under ten minutes left in the quarter. While the Mountaineers would score another touchdown, they fell to Oklahoma by a final score of 59-56.
2019 resulted in another blowout win for the Sooners (52-14), and the programs didn’t cross paths in the shortened 2020 season. However, 2021 may have been the closest West Virginia came to knocking off Oklahoma since joining the Big 12. In a defensive battle, neither school lead by more than three points during the entire game.
While the Mountaineers failed to score in the fourth quarter, the Sooners began their final drive of the night on their own eight-yard line with 3:39 remaining and the game tied 13-13. Quarterback Spencer Rattler, who was being booed by Oklahoma fans on multiple occasions throughout the game, completed six straight passes for 54 yards to get the Sooners into field goal range. Kicker Gabe Brkic drove a 30-yard field goal through the uprights to save the 4th ranked team from overtime and a potential upset.
2022 finally saw West Virginia’s first win against the Oklahoma Sooners since joining the Big 12. Quarterback JT Daniels struggled in the first half, going 7 of 12 passing for 65 yards while throwing an interception. He would be benched for quarterback Garrett Greene, who led the Mountaineers to a 23-20 victory. Greene cemented himself as the starting quarterback for West Virginia in this game, going 12 for 22 passing for 138 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 119 yards and 2 touchdowns. Behind Greene’s dual-threat abilities and the team’s 10-0 fourth quarter, the Mountaineers sang Country Roads to the tune of a 23-20 victory over Oklahoma.
2023 returned to the standard for the Sooners, finishing their Big 12 series with West Virginia with a 59-20 blowout where nothing seemed to go right for the blue and gold. However, the Mountaineers captured their white whale right before it could escape from their grasp. It also helps that they walked away finding their new starting quarterback as well. While a lopsided affair, when these two teams were able to compete at similar levels, they produced nail-biting classics that will be remembered by their fans for years to come.
Looking Towards the Future
With Texas and Oklahoma leaving for the SEC, the Big 12 appears as though anyone could win it. Oklahoma has been crowned as Big 12 Champion seven times since West Virginia joined the conference, including six straight conference championships from 2015 through 2020. Texas capped off their final season in the Big 12 with a conference championship of their own, their fourth with the conference and first since 2009. With the two powerhouses removed, there looks to be parity in the years ahead of us.
West Virginia was ranked as the 7th best team in the Big 12 Football Media Preseason Poll this season, but you could argue for almost any team in the conference to have a shot at taking home a conference championship. Of the sixteen members of the Big 12, eleven of them have never been awarded with the Big 12 Championship. Will a new dynasty rise to try to match Oklahoma’s dominance in the mid to late 2010s? Or, will various teams stake their claims to their first conference championships with the Big 12? Only time will tell, but a new era has begun in the Big 12, along with the entire sport of college football.
